On a popular level, the first crusades unleashed a wave of impassioned, personally felt pious Christian fury that was expressed in the massacres of Jews that accompanied the movement of the Crusader mobs through Europe, as well as the violent treatment of "schismatic" Orthodox Christians of the east.

2) The Spanish Inquisition

"The [Catholic] Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately dash their brains out; by this means they secured that these infants went to heaven." -- Bertrand Russell

The episode is one of the most famous cases of mass hysteria, and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and local governmental intrusion on individual liberties.[1

I hate it when (seemingly normal) people need to look towards some book for moral high-grounds, and then turn around and claim that atheists are immoral for not believing in the christian god. If you need some book to look towards for morals then you're probably already a fairly weak person who only needs to learn to think for him/her self. I hate being labeled a sinner for acting on my own (god-given) free will. I hate Christianity because the christian god supposedly loves his creation, yet ignores most of its creations' pain and suffering and destines those to hell for not worshiping it at no fault of their own.

The christian god doesn't exist, so what's wrong with resenting those who claim it does. They deserve it when they attempt to force their faith into my life when the could be busy with more important issues like following what;s written in the bible., Believe what you want to: I don't care. But just stay out of politics and schools

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"Great moments are born from great opportunities." Herb Brooks

I edit a lot of my posts. The reason being it to add content or to correct grammar/wording. All edits to remove wording get a strike through through the wording.

Essentially, I see Christianity as a bogus product designed to fix a bogus problem.

It starts with the outlandish claim that humanity is so horribly flawed that an omnipotent deity feels compelled not to destroy us, but to keep us alive and to torture us for eternity. To make this even more ludicrous, this is the same god that supposedly created not only us but an entire universe, to boot... Only to have its master plan messed up by a Talking Snake™.

But wait, it gets better! The god of Christian myth goes to outlandish lengths to save us from its perception of us. It kills itself (but only temporarily), essentially paying an imagined debt by moving currency from its own left hand to its right.

However, having our debts paid is still not enough for this cosmic bully. We are still subject to the threat of eternal torture unless we believe that this god died on our behalf. What we have here is a divine drama queen shrieking "It's all about Meeee!" and putting the boots to any mortal who refuses to fawn over its Awesome, Temporarily Self-Sacrificing Self.

If Christianity was just a collection of silly ideas, we could leave it at that. However, Christianity has done vastly more harm than good in the approximately 1685 years since Emperor Constantine turned it into a sociopolitical juggernaut. At least 50,000 people died in Europe as a direct result of witch hunts and inquisitions. Thousands more died in the Middle East because of the Crusades. Other wars of conquest and forced conversion have destroyed lives and cultures throughout Europe and the Americas.

At a personal level, Christianity makes dubious promises that it almost certainly cannot keep. There is no good evidence for persistence of the self after the death of the physical body, and there is no good evidence that prayers are "answered" at a rate substantially different from chance.

Christianity has had hundreds of years to make the world a better place. It has failed. I think it should just fade away and join other mythologies in the dustbin of history.

Religion is nothing more than a way to control people and amass power and money. Many many of the priests, preachers, etc don't even believe. We don't need an imaginary sky daddy to make our lives complete. You can do that yourself.

What has made so many people resent Christianity with such a burning hatred?

first of all, I don't think think there is a "burning hatred". I'd say it was more of a "frustrated contempt". The reasons are fairly obvious, I think, if you could take yourself out of the equation and try to look at it from the perspective of an outsider. Xianity has enjoyed a priviledged position for centuries in the west. Now that atheists - and other religions - are pushing back on that position, the religious are having tantrums.

I resent xianity and xians for trying to make their stupid belief system public policy. Abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, evolution, etc. These are issues that are either personal, private decisions or science. xianity has no place in either of those areas. If you want to have your primitive beliefs, I guess that's fine, as long as you keep them to yourselves and don't try to shove them down everyone else's throats.

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-- "Cast your cares in the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall."~Psalm 55:22

It's kind of stupid to quote bible verses at atheists unless it is just to make yourself feel better.

What has made so many people resent Christianity with such a burning hatred?

More specifically I resent stupidity.

I resent the fact that people look to the Bible for moral guidance when the Bible (the supposed word of almighty God) has scenes of incest, rape, murder, genocide, commandments to kill nonbelievers, gays, witches, apostates, and others, not to mention the absurdities such as talking snakes and donkeys, a guy walking on water and turning into a zombie, and of course let's not forget the utter destruction of mankind by God himself.

This is just absurdities at face value and doesn't even include the deep philosophical and moral fallacies, irrational thinking, and otherwise crazy bullshit such as original sin.

Imagine a popular fictional novel series came out, lets say The Harry Potter Series.

Now imagine that people everywhere started talking about said series and started forming organizations about discussing it. The organizations declare that Magic and Hogwarts really exist.

Everywhere you go there are people handing out fliers about "defence from the dark arts.” They even wake you up Saturday morning to try to convince you to join house Hufflepuff.

These organizations lobby for tax free status, and insist that schools acknowledge the existence of magic…and politicians who are part of the organizations grant it to them.

Magic is added to school textbooks.

In order for anyone to be taken seriously in politics they have to declare there allegiance to Hogwart’s.

Now when things happen, said politicians say “It's Dumbledore’s will.”

Wars are fought over the followers of House Gryffindore versus the followers of House Slytherin. People die for their faith in the books.

People regularly forsake medicine for magic. And whomever declares themselves a wizard and gets a wizard licence is granted societal respect. They ask for donations for the further promotion of magic and get them.

Billions of dollars worth.

When you tell them It is just well written fiction” people snort about you being just a muggle, and some even declare you a dark wizard posing as a muggle. You even get slightly discriminated against, and find it hard to find a mate who doesn't think the books are real.

Now…imagine this going on for decades.

Would you be angry with the followers of the Harry Potter books? Make fun of them?Of course you would.

An Omnipowerful God needed to sacrifice himself to himself (but only for a long weekend) in order to avert his own wrath against his own creations who he made in a manner knowing that they weren't going to live up to his standards.

What has made so many people resent Christianity with such a burning hatred?

-- "Cast your cares in the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall."~Psalm 55:22

the reasons why atheists, and non-Christians don't like Christianity has been well covered here. I'll take to task your verse from the bible. It's funny how many Christians claim that there are so many martyrs for the faith. Now, this simply couldn't be if this god *never* will let the righteous fall. Indeed, we should see a 100% in the win column for Christians and we don't even remotely see that. Of course, there is the problem of what a "Christian" actually is so I suppose if we could figure that out, we'd know just how effective this god might be. However, as it stands now, there is nothing beneficial about belief in any such thing. We see the faithful suffer and die just as much as those who are not. We see worldly wealth have nothing to do with belief, and indeed, for Christians, we do not see them giving away all they have as they were instructed to do.

I'm sure, that if you join us on the forum, you will have the standard Christian excuses for this but be aware that you should read the forum (at least the "mail bag") to see your excuses shown to be inadequate.

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"There is no use in arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the square root of minus 1" - Pirates of Venus, ERB

Imagine that, 300 years from now, a Nazi regime takes over the Western world. They vigorously persecute everyone who isn't a Nazi, until they've stamped out all other belief systems, except for a few hidden remnants. They build giant temples around holy relics like the knucklebone of Goebbels, the Holy Prepuce of Hitler, and so on. Another 1700 years pass, and, after valiant struggles and sacrifice for religious liberty and freedom of inquiry, the regime has moderated quite a bit.

Nonetheless, Nazism is still just assumed by almost everyone to represent the epitome of the good. It's very common to see swastika jewelry and decorations, television commentators demand that Hitler be put back in Walpurgisnacht, many people proudly stick U-boat images on their cars, and so on. And if you should, in shock and disgust, ask anyone, "But...but the genocide! How can you people worship someone as abominable as Hitler?!" you get the following sorts of answers:

Fundamentalist Nazis: "We know that the existence of morality requires a Moral Fuhrer. If there was no Hitler, there could be no morality! Why don't you just run around killing people and marrying gays at random, since you don't believe in Hitler? Now, since Hitler is our Moral Fuhrer, and he willed that genocide happen, it must, by definition, be good. The Jews were just such incredibly wicked people that there was no other choice but to exterminate them. But Hitler loved them, and he shot himself for your sins! How can you turn your back on him?!"

Moderate Nazis: "Well, you have to remember that Hitler lived in a very different time, a very different sitz-im-leben than we now have. Within the context of his times, the Holocaust was not the worst atrocity, or even abnormal. Just look at Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or for that matter, the ancient American liquidation of the native peoples. But Hitler did bring a nation hope, and raise a people from the rubble of collapse to accomplish great things, like advancements in rocketry and jet propulsion."

Liberal Nazis: "Oh, the 'Holocaust' didn't actually happen, goodness no! It's just an allegory for getting rid of the parts of ourselves that hold us back. Here, let me cite this passage from Mein Kampf arguing for workers' rights in the workplace, or this plank of the Nazi platform guaranteeing old age pensions.[1] See? True Nazism is all about compassion and building a society that works for everyone!"

Then somebody comes along and asks you, "What has made so many people resent Nazism with such a burning hatred?"

Now, before anyone trots out Godwin's Law, I do not think that applies here. The comparison is apt. The Bible celebrates genocides carried out on the orders of its god. The killers, men like Moses, Joshua, and David, are its greatest heroes. Read through the Books of Kings or Chronicles. Notice how the "good" kings, the ones that please Yahweh, are the ones who exterminate everyone with a different religion or point of view. The kings who "did evil in the sight of the Lord" are the ones who instituted religious freedom.

Nor does Jesus change anything for the better. First, he firmly adheres to the validity and righteousness of the Mosaic Covenant and laws. Second, he made it infinitely worse by declaring that Yahweh is not finished with you when he's done killing you off, no: his concentration camp ovens roar with flame for all eternity, burning billions of people alive, forever. All those Jews Hitler killed: that's right, they're twisting in Hell's flames as we speak and will continue to do so forever. Trillions of trillions of trillions of years from now, their suffering will still be only just beginning--because they failed to grovel before Jesus in the One, True, Particular Specific Way, whatever that is.

And furthermore, the Book of Revelation tells us that genocide on an unprecedented scale, slaughtering the vast majority of Earth's entire population, is Yahweh's plan for the future.

And then we are told that this represents the epitome of all morality, that we have no ethics and ought to be regarded with suspicion, and that society ought to be run in accordance with the moral principles of people who sanction genocide and torture. So yeah: we resent it.